inocente

Forms

inocente m or f (masculine and feminine plural inocentes)^[1] Old Spanish spelt it innocente and ynoçente.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin innocēns (“harmless; blameless”), a learned word.^[4][5][1][6] Corominas dates it 1220–1250.^[4] This adjective is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + nocēns (“harmful, guilty”), the present participle of noceō (“to harm, damage”), so its first sense was “that does no harm”.^[7][1][4] Vox explains the move to “free of guilt” as a consequence of having done no harm.^[6] The word is learned in the other western languages too: Italian innocente, French innocent and the English word innocent.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs the verb as *nokeje- “to cause death”, from Proto-Indo-European *noḱ-eie- (“to make disappear, cause death”), a causative of *neḱ- (“to perish”);^[9][1] Sanskrit has the matching नाशयति (nāśáya-, “to make disappear, destroy”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is about the Holy Innocents: the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) says that Herod fyzo matar todos los innocentes “had all the innocents killed”.^[3][2] Berceo's Santa Oria and Alfonso X's Espéculo (before 1260) also name the children killed by Herod, and the Alfonsine prose uses the noun for any child who has not reached the age of reason.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 gives three uses: one who is free of the guilt imputed to him; children, “because they do no harm to anyone”, and simple people, for lack of malice.^[11] He also records estar inocente de una cosa “not yet to have heard of it”.^[11] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 lists the senses still current: guiltless, guileless and easily deceived, harmless, and a child below the age of reason.^[12] The DLE adds the colloquial sense “ignorant”.^[5]

The feast of the Holy Innocents on 28 December gave the inocentada, a practical joke played on that day.^[13][14] In Chile and Ecuador inocente was a jocular name for the avocado.^[15] The first record from the Americas is from Santo Domingo in 1549.^[16] Spanish lent the word to Tagalog and Cebuano inosente.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses innocentes of the children killed by Herod.^[3]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date of first record.^[4]
• before 1260 – the Espéculo of Alfonso X names the feast de los ynoçentes.^[3]
• 1293 – the Castigos of Sancho IV praise a woman as ynoçente “pure”.^[3]
• c. 1440 – the noun inocencia is first recorded.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin innocens, insons, innocuus and innoxius as its equivalents.^[17]
• 1549 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains why children and simple people are called innocent.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the Latin etymology.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. innocent, free of guilt; also as a noun: El tribunal lo declaró inocente.^[5][1]
2. Of an action: belonging to an innocent person.^[5]
3. naive, without malice, easily deceived: No seas tan inocente, que te están tomando el pelo.^[5][14]
4. harmless, not noxious: un juego inocente.^[5][6]
5. Of a child: not yet at the age of reason; also as a noun, as in la matanza de los inocentes.^[5]
6. (colloquial) ignorant.^[5]

Word family

• inocentada
• inocentón

Related words

• inocencia
• nocivo
• inocuo
• Latin innocēns

Usage notes

Los Santos Inocentes are the children killed by Herod; their feast on 28 December is the día de los inocentes, the Spanish equivalent of April Fools' Day.^[14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. inocente
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. inocente
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nocivo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. inocente
6. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. inocente
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. innocens
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 379
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. inocente
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1047
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 495
13. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 483
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. inocente
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 480
16. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. ignocente
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. inocente
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 599